Fernwood resort in Poconos abruptly closes

Hotel and convention center is expected to reopen after renovations.

Some 60 employees received text messages Monday evening telling them the facility was closed and informing them they were out of work.

"I'm furious. I don't have a job now," said Mary Folk of Bushkill, a head server at one of the restaurants. "This is not how you let people go."

The closure, affecting the Fernwood Hotel, on-site restaurants, game room and convention center, is part of a major remodeling plan, Jim Ertle, president of Fernwood Hotel and Convention Center, said Tuesday. The Ertle family, which owns the hotel and convention center, hope to reopen the hotel in the summer, Jim Ertle said.

The snow-tubing hill, golf course and time-share villas owned by the Bushkill Group are not affected.

A full renovation of the facility, including the 127 hotel rooms behind the convention center, will modernize the resort.

"A lot of the heating systems are from the 1960s. It is inefficient and needs a major overhaul to make the hotel viable for the future," Ertle said.

The long-vacant original hotel next to the side parking lot will be demolished as part of the improvements.

There were plans to renovate when the Ertles acquired the hotel in December 2011, and some work was done while guests were present.

The work must be financed, which Ertle says was always the plan, but in 2011 the hotel was unable to secure a loan.

Banks are now loosening up financing for the hospitality industry, Ertle said, and he expects to have financing in place shortly.

The hotel will host a few parties that already were booked but no new bookings are being taken, Ertle said.

The hotel and convention center had about 67 employees working in restaurant, hospitality and maintenance. Between five and 10 are still employed.

"We're looking to get though this painful transition as quickly as possible," Ertle said.

Like Folk, Zachary Keller and other employees were shocked by the news.

"A whole lot of open mouths, dropped jaws," said Keller, of Bushkill, who was hired a week ago.

"They just sent out a text," Keller said.

Many who received the text telling them Monday would be their last day on the job said they were told to seek employment elsewhere.

Melinda Fish, a server at Bleachers, a sports bar at the hotel, said she read a text message concerning the cancellation of a mandatory meeting just before 3 p.m., and about three hours later she was told by a supervisor to find a new job.

Fish, from Bushkill, had worked there 18 months. "We had a pretty good idea something would happen, but not this fast," she said.

Folk said her hours recently had been cut to just weekends, and that the restaurants were not open in the daytime anymore.

She said she loved working at Fernwood and made good tips, though her hourly wage was only $3.

Now, she said, she is left with unanswered questions. "You just can't leave ... people hanging like that," she said.